I turn my back to Sybil, and she tucks Rim’s long feather into the cloth binding my breasts, laying it flat against my spine from the small of my back to my neck. The tip brushes my nape, tickling a little.
I hold the other feathers myself, pressing Sol’s offering to the right side of my neck and Fyrestar’s against my hard-beating heart, the angle of it forming a line from the inner curve of my breast to the top of my left shoulder.
Idallia. I’m meant for this. Behold the sun. It’s in my name—the one Bale chose for me, knowing my story and hoping I’d turn to the light in my life instead of the dark.
It’s been dark lately. I’m ready for the light again. I might live for centuries, but two years is already enough time to waste on bitterness and doubt.
With my phoenixes’ spell-imbued feathers against my skin, I pull my shoulders back, lift my gaze to the east, and step into the rising sun, praying to a dead goddess that I don’t burn with the dawn.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
IDALLIA
Autumn has truly set in now, and the snap in the air is even harsher as we fly toward the first peak of the Silver Moon Mountains. I haven’t stopped smiling for hours. I bask in the sunshine, three phoenix feathers a permanent part of me now, brilliant yellow, firelit orange, and reddish-gold brushstrokes painting my skin with protective love and the strongest threads of magic that could still be woven from the fading light of a dying star. My birds are as happy as I am.
“Are you going to forgive Dad now?”
My heart tumbles wildly. Laughing, I shake my head at Sol. “Do you think I should?”
Hugging our left wing, she nods into the wind, her crest a little less thick now but as jaunty and sparking as ever.
“And what do the rest of you think?” I ask.
Rim angles a little closer to our right wing. “You don’t seem as angry anymore.”
I glance over at him. That was a nonanswer if I’ve ever heard one. I understand him, though. He chose me, but I know he misses Bale.
“If you’re ready to forgive, then forgive.” Fyrestar pauses. “Or maybe you already have.”
I have, haven’t I? I don’t think I’d be flying toward this mountain otherwise.
I finally see Bale, a dark, powerful dragon on a granite cliffside. He turns and stares in our direction, his amber eyes reflecting the afternoon sun, and his reddish-black scales absorbing the light until he looks like a shadow cast against the wall. Preternaturally still, he waits, watching. He doesn’t track me like I’m prey. He tracks me like I’m everything.
We speed past him and up, landing on the summit. Huge wings flap, talons send stones cascading down the sheer rock face of the mountainside, and then he’s with us, seamlessly shifting into skin as he strides forward.
Voice rough, awed, he says, “It worked.” Stopping a few steps from me, he stares at me so hard that his gaze both burns my skin and makes me shiver. “Is it permanent?”
I loosen my cloak and tunic enough to show him at least part of each of the three feathers, ending with the one at my nape as I turn, lift my wind-tangled hair, and look over my shoulder at him. “They’re bonded to my body. I can’t lose them, and no one can take them from me.” I turn back around, pulling my cloak closed against the thin, cold air. “The shielding magic was infused into the feathers and then into me when they hit daylight. It’s done, Bale. I can walk in the sun.”
His face a wreck, his hands already reaching for me, he closes the distance between us and folds me into his arms, pulling me against him. I stiffen on reflex, then close my eyes, sigh, and sink into his warm body. Woodsmoke and wind. Autumn leaves and pine-scented forests. Inhaling his scent, I lift my arms and hold him back. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be.
“I’m so proud of you,” he murmurs against my hair. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“I can’t live in Blackrock Keep anymore. I hate it.” I lift my gaze to his. “I want high mountains and furious updrafts, wild spaces and shining lakes, and…” My breath hitches. I can barely get the word out, my throat clogging with tears. “You.”
His eyes widen. A low groan sounds in his chest, then his mouth is on mine, his hands in my hair, and his kiss is everything I’ve been terrified to think about for the last two years.
I kiss him back, fiercely, passionately, and for the first time since I left Drayke Mountain, I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
IDALLIA
“You weren’t wrong about having labor and resources to spare.” I look around the finalized interior of our new lair, satisfied and impressed. The outside of the new stronghold carved into our mountain is just as magnificent. It’s as much a palace as a fortress, with wide terraces, high, arching windows, and crenellated walkways atop towers and lookout points protecting the summit. I can’t believe how quickly even the finishing touches went on, and now the town in the river-cut valley below is growing by the day, houses and businesses sprouting like mushrooms.
“I was motivated.” Bale brings my wrist to his lips and kisses the sensitive inside. “You said you wouldn’t marry me unless it was in our new home.” He smiles seductively, and heat snaps in my belly. “Here we are.”
Here we are. My heart flutters like a vortex of autumn leaves swept up and around in happy circles. “I think you could fit a horse in that fireplace. And there are a lot of rugs.”
