Thrace blows air from his mouth. “I’ve not seen him speak with anyone. Unless, of course, there’s some bond. You remember what it was like when I was able to come to you…”
Kalixta blushes at his words. “No. He can’t have bonded with anyone. He wouldn’t ever put someone in that sort of danger.”
“You’re right. Though this thing with Alixor and your sister has changed much around here. If Zhoric found a way to strengthen himself with a bond, he might just do it.”
I’m on the edge of panic taking over—celestial manifestation of my form or no, I can’t seem to be able to tell the difference right now. What danger does my sister speak of? Does it have something to do with what happened to Zhoric tonight? Or is there something else with the elites?
Kalixta’s posture straightens and she looks around. “Your wards are strong?”
“As strong as ever. Why?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know…I’m getting a feeling. Almost like someone is near and watching.”
I draw back, nostrils flaring as alarm spears me. Kalixta is my sister, she could be a potential bond. Does that mean she can see me? And if she could, what would she say? What would she do? If I’m here in this form, they’ll put together that I’m the one Zhoric can bond with. I can’t have them finding out and putting a stop to it.
Thrace stands and gently places the girl down in the bassinet off to the side, then he leans down. “I’ll check, but first, kiss me. For energy to strengthen my wards.”
She smiles and tips her chin up to capture his lips with hers. “Did it work?”
I sense a surge of power.
“I think we can do better than that.” He claims her lips again and deepens the kiss, taking her head in his hands to angle her how he likes. She hums, contented.
I step back until the sight of them is blocked by the wall once more. The words exchanged between Thrace and Kalixta churn over and over in my mind like an oncoming storm. Zhoric is behaving differently. Thrace thinks the king would bond with someone who could give him strength. And whatever it is that happens to Zhoric on these nights is worsening. At least, until I was by his side. The only one who can truly answer any of this is asleep on the floor in the other room.
Back in Zhoric’s chambers, I stand over his form, so still in sleep that if I didn’t know in my soul that he was alive, I’d think him dead.
“What are you doing to me?” I whisper, my eyes tracing the angles and planes of his face, his shoulders and back, landing on the gnarled scars across his heart.
Dawn is still a long way off and an exhaustion like I haven’t felt before in this form sweeps me. I pad away from him and land on his bed, letting the soft pillows envelop me and swallow me whole.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
A PAIR OF deep green eyes bore into mine as I open them. Zhoric tenses, his form frozen with his head propped on his fist as he lies in bed beside me, his face awash in the early morning rays of dawn.Dawn?That can’t be right.
“You’re awake,” he says, voice low and gravelly, a hint of surprise buried in his words. I flit my gaze down, noting the smooth plane of his chest and torso, the black god scale glittering in the light. I shoot upright. He rises slowly, as if a sudden movement from him might startle me further.
I chance a look out the windows, the morning’s early light is no mistake, no trick of my eye. If I’m here in this form, then I’m still a dragon back in the Realm. Though I don’t need to wipe sleep from my face in this form, I press my fingers deep into my eye sockets all the same.
“Why haven’t you shifted and left?” he asks.
I drop my hands heavily into my lap and tilt my head, annoyed instantly at his question.
A smile threatens the lines of his mouth. “Not much of a morning person?”
“For someone who hates having questions asked of him, you’re certainly the curious one in the morning.”
He ignores that. “You must be more powerful than I thought to have overcome this aspect of the curse so quickly.”
Immediately the conversation I heard between Kalixta and Thrace comes rushing back to me. They feared that Zhoric might bond with someone strong if he thought it would help him keep the upper hand against the elites. Even though it’s precisely what I offered him, it didn’t seem to truly interest him. Until now. “Does that help in your consideration of my offer?” I hedge.
Zhoric lowers head, like he’s about to let me in on a secret. “Of course it does.”
I clench my teeth and slowly swivel my head away from him so he doesn’t see the panic etched on my face.
“Regretting your little proposal now?” he asks.
“Not if it means I get to be with my sister again.”
