Rivon steps toward me, his huge talons scratching the muddy, rocky ground. “Not me! Him!” I point at Brin. The movement sends a wave of pain radiating from my throat. From the bite. What did Sela do to me?
My ears ring, a high-pitched hum that makes me blink at the sudden pain of it. Rivon steps closer, his eyes narrowing as he sniffs the air.
“Save him!” I scream so forcefully I taste blood.
The world shakes, breaking apart and crumbling beneath my feet. I fall forward, but I don’t hit the ground. Instead, I find myself wrapped in a golden cage, warm and welcome, familiar. My heart is in my throat as he snatches me up and takes wing, flapping hard and bearing me higher and higher.
“Vander?” I glance down through the rain hoping to see Rivon grabbing Brin, but there’s nothing below me. Just darkness. Vander’s talons close tightly, cocooning me in his heat. I press my cheek to his skin, the ache in my neck spreading to the back of my head and around to my temples. “You’re all right.” I could cry, but I don’t know if I have any tears left. “You came for me.”
“I’ll always come for you.” I could swear I hear his voice in my head, but it’s fleeting, like the string of a kite that’s been stolen by the wind.
I chase after it. “Vander?”
“You are my treasure. My only. My mate. I will never leave you. Never.”
I smile despite the pain, despite everything that’s happened. “I know.”
Chapter
Twenty-Two
VANDER
Iglide into the cave as best I can, but my injured side is weak, too weak for me to aim worth a damn when I try to land. Turning, I clutch Larellin tightly to me as I slide across the stone floor, treasure cascading around us as the gold slows and finally stops my momentum.
My talons unfurl, and I sit her atop a pile of coins and look her over with one eye.
She reaches out, her fingers tickling along my snout. “You came for me.”
“Always.”
A green wound mars her throat. Fire builds in my chest when I realize it’s a bite. Her cheek is badly bruised with a small cut, too, but it doesn’t worry me like the mottled flesh where Sela inflicted her venom.
Fyan glides to a halt beside me, Faraday following.
“Take her to Lenka,” I tell Fyan. “Now. Sela has poisoned her.”
“You’re bleeding badly.” Fyan sniffs at my injured side.
“And I can’t change until these shards are removed,”I snap at him. “Take her now. I’ll follow.”
Fyan shifts, changing into his more human form.
Larellin sways a little, and I press my snout to her side, steadying her. “You’ll be all right, my treasure. I swear it.”
“It’s funny.” She looks into my eye. “I keep thinking I can hear you, but that’s not possible. I think maybe … maybe Sela poisoned me. Or maybe, I don’t know. Once, when I was a child, I took badly ill drinking some foolsberry wine made by the kids in the village. I saw things. Heard things. Like this. Like you talking to me.” She scratches between my eyes, and despite the pain in my side, my back leg starts to twitch with pleasure. “I thought I heardyouwhen I was a child. You said you’d come for me. You said …” She leans against me. “It was your voice. Iknowit was. Just like I think I’m hearing you now.”
Rivon lands with a blast of cold air, his orange scales faintly glowing in the dark.
“We must get you to Lenka.” Fyan scoops Larellin into his arms.
I growl low and deep, the fire threatening to bubble out of me. “Don’t touch my mate.”
He glares at me. “You justtoldme to touch her!”
“Take her.” Rivon lumbers over, still in dragon form as he eyes my bloody side. “This is going to get messy.”
“But Lenka betrayed me. Lenka is … she’s …” Larellin reaches up to her damaged neck and whimpers.
