With a practiced precision, I pressed the guilt deep enough to avoid feeling it and focused on my purpose—giving her the connection she needed. I imagined her as a queen in one of the winter courts and bowed. “Andar, Your Majesty, at your service.”
Chapter 3: Khiona
Andar bent at the waist, sending his cloak billowing out behind him. With the smugness gone, his chiseled face grew more appealing. I would enjoy having him around.
My eyes fell to the lamp. What if I requested that he stay out of the lamp? Keep me company? Even… be a friend? I might have blocked my emotions, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed isolation.
But his magic would not affect the heart, mind, or emotions. I might wish for his company, but he would be no more loyal than the human who had trapped me—
A deep pounding behind the mountains ripped my thoughts back to the present. Was that…
“Ice Dragons.” Andar studied the mountains that blocked the dragons from our view. “Cursed vermin.”
When I’d had my magic, I could easily handle one of the beasts—maybe two—but their drums compounded, vibrating through the air. I couldn’t tell their exact number, but I definitely heard more than two. Every time they flapped their huge wings, their muscles pulled on tymbals that echoed through the beasts’ air sacs, making a drumming sound that warned everyone of their approach. Their complete lack of stealth was their greatest weakness.
“They seem to be staying on the other side of the mountains,” Andar said, “but perhaps we should not tarry on these—”
A violent vibration cut him off, and another earthquake wrenched the ground under me. It knocked me off balance, and I fell to my hands and knees on the still-shaking clifftop. The lamp I’d been holding hit the rocks and bounced away from me, next to Andar’s feet. I wanted it back in my hands, but the shaking ground threatened my ability to stand. Instead, I clenched the stones and waited for the earthquake to end.
When the mountains finally stilled, I dusted my hands across the magic-enhanced leathers I’d worn for years and stood slowly. No need to show off how my imprisonment had damaged my balance. Just before I finished straightening, an eerie crack tore through the air, and…
The cliff beneath me broke away.
My arms flailed, but I caught only air. I screamed and shut my eyes. The last thing I saw was Andar’s face, straight and stoic, his blue eyes slightly widening as he realized I was about to die. There was no time for me to get my magic back. Or even to wish for—
Tight, vise-like fingers seized my forearms.
I stopped falling.
My breath caught, and I opened my eyes to discover I was hanging, suspended in the air, next to the cliff. If I swung my legs, the toes of my boots would touch the new cliff face. Andar lay flat on the top of the cliff with his arms extended out to me. He’d caught me.His hands held my forearms. Only his grip separated me from death at the bottom of the cliff.
I swallowed and met his expressionless gaze, but my voice trembled. “Must I use one of my last two requests to stay alive?”
“No,” he grunted. His breathless answer made me realize how much effort he must have exerted to both catch me and brace both of us against the smooth clifftop.
He tugged and heaved me upward, onto the top of the stones next to him. I lifted my legs and leaned, landing crouched on my hands and knees. Again. He released my arms and rolled, panting, onto his back next to me.
I dusted my hands—again—and knelt facing him. “I did not realize you could help without me making a specific request.”
Emotion I couldn’t identify flitted across Andar’s face, but he clenched his jaw and cleared the expression as he rose into a kneeling position next to me. He blew out a long, soft breath and met my eyes. “I have decided to protect you as much as I can as long as our paths cross. If you do not forbid it, I intend to do everything in my power to keep you safe. No magic wishes required.”
No magic wishes required? My gaze fell to the lamp behind him. What would he get out of such a bargain?
But this was no bargain—he would get nothing. I would get a protector and two more requests.
And a debt.
I would owe him for such an offer.
I did not like the implications of that. “Why?” I asked directly.
We both knew his fae tongue could not lie, but I was still shocked by the straight-forward honesty of his answer. “I am hoping to convince you to help me as well.”
“What do you want help with?”
He stood easily, his breath recovered, and offered me a hand. I took it, grateful for the help but unwilling to admit that gratitude—or my need for assistance—out loud. He kept my hand in his and settled his other hand on top of them both. His face softened into a look of care and concern that warmed my soul. The last person to look at me with any kind of tenderness had been a human—and his consideration had only lasted until my magic broke.
“It’s not a conversation for this deathtrap,” Andar said. “Let me get you off the foothills before any more cliffs fall. Once you have a safe place to relax, we can talk.”
