The experience warmed my heart and broke it all at once. I know I’m not coming back. Not for a long time. Whether this thing works or not. And I’ll miss my family and my people. But I’m also looking forward to my new life with my mate.
You’re quiet tonight,Rosanthra thinks, nudging my mind with a twist of dry amusement.
“I’m thinking,” I say. I run my hand along her neck, feeling the heat from her scales. “Do you miss the Island of Dragons?”
It was never home. Just the place where I was born.
Home, for me, had always been with my people and my family. But when I decided to make this offer of peace to the Dravari, hoping it’d be linked through marriage, my family and I discussed the probability that I’d have to stay with the Dravari for a time to secure the peace treaty. My eldest sister stepped up and agreed to lead in my place, at least when it came to the daily workings of my people.
And since I’ve been gone, she’s done a wonderful job. I knew she could handle it, even though I’d miss the weight of the responsibility of my people on my shoulders.
Leaving everything I’ve ever known behind feels like a massive sacrifice. But when I look up and see Harper’s silhouette against the stars, the ache in my chest is almost too much. I want things I never let myself want before. I want to make her laugh, make her scream in pleasure, make her mine until there’s nothing left but our bodies, tangled and sweating in some forgotten corner of the world.
It’s embarrassing, how easy this love is. How easy she makes it.
I glance back and catch Lucien watching me. He looks away when our eyes meet, but not fast enough to hide the knowingsmile curling at his mouth. I can’t hide what I feel for Harper. Not from them.
Since the wedding, since all of this, there’s a new softness between me and the princes. It’s more than a mutual agreement not to kill each other. Maybe even a real friendship.
I can work with that.
The wind picks up, and suddenly Gore Rock is looming out of the night, the walls of the fortress slick, grey, and unwelcoming. How many times did I fight above this island? How many of my men have I lost? And how many dragon riders have I killed?
Too many.
This is a place of death. Of war. I doubt peace will ever truly touch its lands.
The fortress is built for defense, not beauty: no banners, no flowers or gardens, just the bone-white gleam of the watchtowers and the threat of a thousand arrows waiting to fall. Last time I was here, I lost two friends to those arrows. They bled out on the landing field and we couldn’t even retrieve their bodies to bring back to their loved ones.
I don’t tell Harper that. I will never tell her. There’s no point in filling her mind with the shards of glass that seem to keep cutting me as I try to forgive my enemies, knowing they’re trying to forgive me too.
“Gore Rock!” Lucien shouts.
“Almost there!” Harper says, grinning.
We close in, the Dravari dragons roaring their arrival to the sentries. The fortress answers with a ripple of light, signal fires pulsing along the walls to communicate our presence to the rest of the dragon riders. The female dragons fan out above us, nervous, and I realize they don’t like this island anymore than I do.
“I’m going to sleep for days!” Gareth shouts, voice carrying even through the rush of air.
I pull Rosanthra in tight, wings angled for a controlled dive. We cut through the air with the female dragons behind us, attempting to land, and as we hit the rocks, every eye on the fortress is locked onto our group.
They still don’t know what to make of me, riding a dragon, or the female dragons behind us. I don’t blame them. All their lives have been focused on finding and killing Hollowborns. They’re not prepared for any of this. Especially peace.
The landing is rough, but we all manage it. Ebron’s claws send sparks flying on the stone, and Harper dismounts like she’s done it a thousand times, hair in a wild halo and cheeks flushed from the cold. Gareth and the others hop off, boots crunching on the frost. I slide down Rosanthra’s leg, ignoring the ripple of suspicion that passes through the assembled guards.
A moment later, the dragon riders are on us. Six of them, each one looking like they don’t know how to do anything other than kill. They wordlessly surround us, like this is a direct repeat of last time. Not quite that we bore them, but more like they just want to get this thing over with.
They all bow to Gareth, Lucien, and Alaric. There’s not a word or show of respect for Harper, and definitely not for me.
The air is knife-cold. My skin prickles.
Gareth notices first, and his mouth hardens. “Aren’t you going to greet your new princess?” he says, tone almost lazy.
The lead rider, a square-jawed bastard with eyes like broken glass, hesitates, then bows, barely. “Welcome, Princess Harper. Welcome to Gore Rock.”
Harper’s face is unreadable, but she steps forward, chin high. “Thank you. You haven’t greeted King Sevrin yet.”
The rider’s eyes flick to me, and I can see the struggle. He wants to spit, or curse, or maybe just punch me in the mouth. But he bows again, lower this time. “Of course, Your Highness. All honored guests are welcome.”
