“You heard me,” she says, jutting her chin up, legs braced, a gleaming sword held in her palm. It’s the most fearless, sexiest sight I’ve ever seen in my life. But in all my anticipation, in view of her gleaming perfection, I failed to see that there’s something missing. Right there in her eyes.
My stomach plummets.
“Auren?”
I try to move forward even though I’m cemented in place, but she flinches back.
Flinches. Back.
“How do you know my name?”
She might as well have shoved her sword through my heart. I can’t breathe as her words soak in, as I realize the unfamiliarity in her wary gaze.
What the fuck is happening?
Panic pulses through my head, and I feel real, cold fear that ices over my heart.
“What is this? What happened?” I demand. “Auren. It’sme.”
But there’s nothing. She looks at me like she’s never seen me before, and my heart fucking shatters. I can hear every fragment fall.
Her eyes dart to look at the beast behind me, and I see her notice the tendrils of rot that have bloomed over the bricks from our feet.
My mouth is parted in shock, heartbreak pinching my chest as I desperately try to figure out what’s going on. Then amale carrying a sword comes running up from the sloped area below. He has long black hair tossed over to the left side, and he’s splattered with both bruises on his face and blood on his shirt.
He sees the dragon and comes to a jolting halt, his face paling. “What…”
“Yeah, I didn’t expect to find a dragon,” Auren mutters to him.
“No?” I say. “Well, Ididexpect to find a goldfinch.”
Her golden eyes flare.
Something there, somethingalmostthere.
Hope surges in my chest.
Obviously, something happened to her memories, but she’s still there. She’s still mine. The proof of that is right there in her aura.
“What did you say?” she whispers, and her voice sounds so fucking fragile beneath all that armor that it hurts to breathe.
“Goldfinch,” I say softly.
Her gold bindings loosen around me ever so slightly, and it makes my shattered heart lift. Try to piece back together.
Determination steels my bones.
I don’t know why the fuck she doesn’t remember me, or what’s happened while we’ve been separated. But physical distance couldn’t keep us apart, and a mental one won’t either.
“Whoareyou?” she asks again, but her voice seems unsure now. Wavering.
The male looks between us, but wisely stays quiet and still.
“You know who I am, Auren,” I tell her gently.
She starts to shake her head, and her gaze flicks up to the dragon again. “Eyes on me,” I murmur.
Her gaze pins and sharpens. I can see the flare of defiance, but behind that is her uncertain vulnerability.
