“Yes, we're going home, girl,” I said. “Enough running.”
She yipped.
“Smartest thing I've ever heard you say,” Geris said around a mouthful of sausage.
Chapter Forty-Eight
“Where is he?” I demanded as I strode into the Royal Castle of Sken.
“Fucking give me a second to finish dressing,” Geris growled as he hurried in after me, his shirt and coat over one arm. “I just landed, for fuck's sake.”
We had flown back. It was the fastest way, free, and Geris insisted on it. And the trip had told me something important. If Rian had wanted to, he would have caught me that first day. The flight to Vagasof had lasted less than an hour, and the reason Geris had been able to find me was that Rian had been muttering the word Umelamo over and over. He had known where I was the entire time.
“Where is he, Geris?!” I shouted. “Just tell me. I don't need a damn escort.”
“Go right!” He dropped his clothes and pulled on his shirt.
I left him to it, taking the right and continuing down a corridor. Geris came after me shortly, his running footsteps warning me of his approach. Then he was taking the lead, and I was glad for it despite my protest. I probably could have foundRian on my own, but this was faster. And Geris didn't dawdle. He sped through the passages and within seconds brought Vash and me to a door guarded by two of Rian's knights. Their eyes widened when they saw me.
“Thank the Gods,” one of them murmured as the other flung open the door for me.
The screaming didn't surprise me. I'd already been feeling it. Hearing it. The entire trip. I stopped ignoring it once I knew it was Rian, and the closer we got to Vagasof, the louder it became. But hearing it in person quieted the echoes of it in my mind. The clawing inside me stopped. Turned into an urging. I raced into a stairwell and went down. The further down I went, the less the urging ate at me until it became peace.
There he was. My mate. Dressed only in a pair of pants. Dirty pants. The rest of him was bare, including his feet. His hair hung in greasy tangles. A beard covered half his face. Blood streaked his chest. And his eyes burned. They looked as if they'd been burning ceaselessly. So hot that the surrounding skin had cracked.
The screaming was terrible. It hurt my head. But it hurt me worse to see him slamming himself into the wall, then clawing at the stone, leaving deep runnels in it. The three stone walls were covered in such marks and as streaked with blood as his chest was.
Thud! Rian knocked into the wall again, then crumpled to the ground and wept.
“Rian,” I whispered.
The Dragon King went still.
“Rian, I'm here.” I hurried to the bars.
To my left, the corridor extended, cells to either side. All of them empty. The light was dim down there, but someone had set a lantern outside of Rian's cell and it shone brightly, illuminating Rian's hollow belly and hunched shoulders. His sobbing stopped, but he still hadn't looked at me.
“Open it!” I motioned at the cell door.
“That's not a good idea,” Geris said.
“Open it!” I looked around, searching for the key, then found it hanging on a wall near the stairwell. I ran for the keyring, snatched it off its hook, and went to the cell door.
“He's dangerous, Galin.” Geris grabbed my arm.
“You brought me here. What did you expect me to do?”
“Talk to him through the bars. Ease him back to us.”
My shoulders drooped, the keys clanging as my hand fell away from the lock. “Ease him back?”
“You have to go slowly with a Dragon in this state.”
“Fuck,” I growled. “All right.”
Relieved, Geris stepped back.
“Rian?” I tried again. “I'm so sorry I left. I didn't know. Didn't understand that you would do this to yourself. I was so focused on fear. You scared me. I didn't think I was strong enough to be—”
