“Now!” I yell. Gods, I can’t bear to see her suffer.
Fyan’s wings flap a few times, and then he’s carrying her through the air and into the dark entry of the keep.
Rivon sniffs me a few more times and maneuvers to get a better angle on the shards. “I left Brin with his people. He’s in bad shape, but Arinda said she can patch him up.”
“Arinda might kill him out of spite, but what a way to go.” Faraday stands at the cave’s entrance, guarding us against any surprises from Sela’s warriors. They wouldn’t be foolish enough to follow us here, but the DaySilver clan has changed since we last were in battle against each other. I can’t pretend to know what they might be capable of.
“You have to hold still.” Rivon nudges me onto my side.
He pushes my wing out of the way. “Gods, this is a mess. Who was it? Alestes?”
“Yes.”
“I saw what was left of him.” Faraday paces at the cave entrance, his silver wings flashing. “Fyan did well in his first battle. A true warrior. Only because he learned from the best of course.” If a dragon can grin, Faraday is surely doing it now.
“On the count of three.” Rivon’s talons scrape against my scales and the tender wound between them.
“Fuck!Go easy, would you?”
“One.” He presses them through the shredded flesh. I bite down hard, my teeth aching at the pressure. “Two.”
I roar as white-hot agony scorches through me. A large, bloody crystal shard falls to the stone, and then another. The final oneclatters away as I roar again, a few stalactites falling around us and shattering.
“That’s it. That’s all of them.” Rivon presses against the wound, sending another wave of pain through me.
“You said on three.Three!” I yell.
“Rivon’s never been too good at math.” Faraday shifts into his smaller form, his wings tucked at his back. “Not his strong suit.”
I get back to my feet and test my wing. A dull pain lives where the sharp one from earlier resided. The shards are well and truly gone.
Without another word, I shift and fly to the DragonKeep entrance, then hurry to our bedchambers. I can smell the poison, the sickly scent mixing with the honeysuckle of my mate.
Lenka presses something to Larellin’s throat, but Larellin doesn’t stir.
“What have you done?” I climb into bed with her, pulling her into my lap and cradling her there.
“Just enough belladonna for her to sleep through the pain. The venom has gone deep.” Lenka pulls the compress away, and I see green streaks snaking away from Sela’s bite and coloring Larellin’s veins along her throat and down to her chest. “We have to draw it out. Sprite is gathering what I need.”
“This is your fault.” I glare at Lenka, at the Firefolk who has been like a mother to me, to us all. Her betrayal cuts far more deeply than the crystal shards.
“I know.” She looks at me with tired eyes, fiery tears already welling there.
“Why?”
She gently presses a clean bandage to Larellin’s cheek. “It was the only way.”
“The only way to what? Almost get my matekilled?” It takes every bit of control I have left not to rage at her.
“No.” She sighs heavily. “To break the curse.”
I stare at her.
“I would never betray you, Sire. You have to know I did what I didforyou, not against you. For her, too.” She dabs at Larellin’s cheek.
“You gave her to my enemies for her own good?” I seethe. Never in my life have I considered myself a vicious master or a DragonKin who would ever strike a servant, especially not one as close to my heart as Lenka. But she is sorely testing me.
“It was the only way, Sire. I know—” She swipes at her cheek with the back of her hand. “—I know it’s hard to understand, even harder to believe, but I swear to you and all the DragonKin I served before you that I have always been faithful and loyal.” She tilts her chin up the slightest bit. “I knew my life would be forfeit for it, and I chose this path anyway, because it’s the only one that sees you and the rest of the DragonKin back in your homeland. I would die many times over to grant you that.”
