“Eliel,” the Dragon King whispered and slowly, cautiously, closed his arms around my upper shoulders.
“One touch,” I whispered.
“Yes.” He bent his head over me. “One touch at a time.”
Chapter Six
The Dragon King helped me out of the carriage. I glanced over at the knights on either side of us. Their eyes were full of pity.
My cheeks warmed. They'd heard me. My terror. My panic. It had been witnessed. It said a lot that they hadn't stopped the carriage to check on the King, even when he shouted. They knew what was happening inside. They knew I wasn't a threat. That I was just broken.
I lowered my eyes.
“Eliel?” The Dragon King took my hand. “Is this all right?”
I lifted my gaze. There was no possession in his eyes. No greed. Only compassion and . . . affection? Maybe something stronger.
“Yes.” I lifted my chin, folded my wings, and squeezed his hand. “Yes, this is good.”
The Dragon King smiled at me. It was a full smile, not one tempered by sympathy like those he often gave me. This smile held only joy and hope. It brightened his face and softenedhis Dragon menace. I just stared, shocked that he could become even more glorious.
He cocked his head. “Eliel?”
I looked away, setting my gaze on the building before us. “This is Bara's storage facility?”
Open land stretched around us, spotted with a few trees. No one was close enough to hear shouting. Or screaming. The building stood alone, a simple construction of a single story, stone and wood. Only two windows in the front wall, both covered in grime. The door needed to be sanded and stained. The place looked abandoned.
“We believe so. It was listed in his records but without a notation.” The King's stare slid over the building, skimming the roof and windows. He settled it on Sir Vanoak. “Clear the building.”
“Yes, sire!” Vanoak hurried inside with Sir Lohawk.
The rest of us, including the King's knights and a few Horns, remained outside, the Horns searching the area outside of the building. We were outside the city walls, but I could see the spires of Ahanu in the distance. As I mentioned, plant life was meager, making it easy to keep watch. The only sign of life was a deer about a hundred yards away.
“It's clear, Your Majesty,” Sir Vanoak said as he emerged.
“Thank you.” The King led me inside, his hand granting me a sliver of the comfort I had found in his arms.
Fear still shifted in the back of my mind, bulging forward like dark clouds, but I held it back with thoughts of being in the King's arms. King Raventar hadn't demanded anything fromme. Only gave. His touch wasn't like Bara's. He didn't want to hurt me. I was safe with him. Those thoughts became a shield—brittle, but opaque. Enough to hide behind for now.
I entered Bara's building holding the Dragon King's hand tightly. Bara was dead. He wasn't there. No one was there. The building was empty until we entered it.
The knights had turned on the overhead lights, so there were no shadows to worry me. It was indeed a storage facility, but a strange one. The open room looked more like a barn than a warehouse. There were several shelves lined up in a row along the right wall and fully stocked, but most of the room was open, with a few tables to my left, and pallets on the floor across from them.
I let go of the King's hand and strode over to the tables. Dishes, glasses, and utensils were gathered in a tray, stacked neatly on one of the tables, and a few cooking pots were on the floor by the wall. People had rested there. I turned to look at the sleeping pallets laid out along the opposite wall, with a few feet between each. They wouldn't have been so disturbing if not for the manacles next to each one, affixed to the wall by chains threaded through metal loops. I stepped back.
“What the fuck?” The Dragon King moved past me, his shoulders bunching. “What is this?”
“I don't know, but it's not Bara's storage facility,” I said.
King Raventar spun to look at me. “Why do you say that?”
“He would never bother with prisoners.” I motioned at the chains. “I was the only captive he kept.”
“How can you be sure?”
“It's too risky. Why would he take prisoners when the Spider shipped him all the bones he needed? He didn't like people.” I grimaced. “He was happiest with the dead.”
The Dragon King frowned, and then he sniffed. Crouching, he pushed aside a pallet. There was a dark brown spot on the stone. “Blood.” He stood up. “There were people here recently. Gods damn it, Eliel's right. This can't be Bara's place.”
