His hand tightens around me while his eyes soften, gaze delving into me with meaning. “Believeme. Being able to call you Goldfinch means more to me than you know.”
My lips curve into a smile, and he presses a kiss against my temple before I turn back around.
I move my gaze over to the plateau where Glassworth Palace sits. Then my eyes skim just to the left of it, where a row of blocks are set into the side of the cliff.
“That’s where the underground dungeons are,” I say, pointing. “Where I was kept.”
I feel more than hear him growl, but then his dragon growls too, and I definitely hearthat.
My hand comes down to his thigh that’s pressing against mine. “I’m okay,” I tell him. “I made it.”
“Yeah, you did. I’m fucking proud of you, Goldfinch. For all of it.”
I’m proud of me too.
I eye the green blocks set into the cliffs—the same green as Slade’s eyes. That block fed light into my cell like a barred window, though now, I can see just how thick and deep the slab is. I shudder as I remember what it felt like to be trapped on the other side of it.
One king caged my body. Another tried to cage my mind. The first is dead by my hand, and the second is due for a reckoning.
He’ll get what’s coming to him.
Dark satisfaction settles in my chest at the fact that Una’s body is rotting inside that dungeon. That her horrible magic can’t eat away at anyone else’s mind ever again.
“You’re not there,” Slade soothes, as if he can sense the emotions thrumming through me.
I’m not in Midas’s cage. I’m not trapped within the holes of punctured memories. I’m back in Annwyn, reunited with Slade, in total control of my mind and power. And nothing can stop me from making sure we get all of our joy-filledone days, because we deserve it.Ideserve it.
After a lifetime of trauma and emotional manipulation and abuse, I have finally healed and grown enough to realize that. To say it to myself.
I deserve happy, and so does Slade.
My heart aches to think of all he’s endured. Of what he’s still enduring, because until we find his mother, those shadows can’t leave his eyes.
But he doesn’t have to shoulder these things alone anymore, and neither do I.
That’s what I feel the most through our paired connection. A sense of belonging. Cohesion. Devotedness. Love incarnate. A connection that strengthens me from the inside out, but that doesn’t surprise me.
Because Slade has been doing that since the moment we met.
The dragon turns from the plateau, passing by the mist of the waterfall. Facing this way, we have a clear view of Glassworth. It looks stunning in this light. Every inch an architectural feat of both labor and magic. Smooth white wallsand hundreds, maybe thousands, of stained glass windows casting off an array of colors.
A pretty palace for an ugly king.
And his reign is toppling. I think everyone can feel that the energy of the Vulmin is mounting. Growing. It feels so different from before. They’re no longer worried about hiding in the shadows. We’re past that now.
Change is coming. It’s already begun. We’re so close I can taste it.
So close, and yet there’s still so much to do.
“We should get back,” I say, even though I’d love to be able to fly all day with him. To let day bleed into night and watch the stars salt the sky.
One day.
For now, we need to make sure no one was hurt from the initial fire. Then we need to speak with the Oreans and make a plan to find Elore.
Whatever inherent understanding there is between Slade and the dragon makes the creature start to turn back around to head for Lydia. But something catches my eye at the palace.
“Wait, what is that?” I point ahead, and I can feel Slade turn to look in that direction too. I frown, squinting. “Are those soldiers?”
