“And whoever comes to help us might die here, too.”
They were both silent.
Francine broke the silence. “Your magic feeds the enchantment that keeps this place stable. How much control do you have over that?”
“None whatsoever. I control some aspects of my magic—walking in the shadows, shifting between my dragon and human forms—but the enchantment is different. Keeping it secure is as natural and uncontrollable as breathing.”
“You can’t hold your breath?”
“I do not relish the idea of attempting it, when doing so would kill us both instantly,” he said dryly.
“Would it be instant?”
“That’s an experiment I might be happy to attempt were the fate of the world not at stake. What are you imagining? We step outside, I try to staunch the flow of magic into the fortress, it works, and we’re left staring at an empty, frozen mountain, knowing we only have a few years before the Soul-Eater rises again?” He sighed. “It wouldn’t work, anyway. My—my niece. Wherever she is, out there, her magic will be feeding the enchantment, too.”
Francine lifted her chin. “Then we use the enchantment’s decay to our advantage.”
They explored the rest of the fortress. It took most of the day, and what they found made despair creep black and hollow into his chest.
The fortress had always been empty. A great, echoing vastness; a city meant to hold thousands, home to a dwindling handful of dragons. He and Adria had explored whole wings of the fortress that hadn’t been home to their intended clans for years.
Decades.
Centuries.
A chill brushed over him. He’d known, growing up, that they were the last. But knowing as a child who only knew these empty halls was different to knowing it as a man who’d seen what the rest of the world held.
And now he held the fate of it all in his hands. Him. Julian. Whose only playfellows had been his sister and the stories he’d read of long-dead shadow dragons and their mates. Who’d longed so much for the outside world.
Whose longing and foolishness had gotten his sister killed.
He had done nothing right in his life, and now he was meant to save the world?
“Talking about me behind my back?” Francine asked, and he froze.
“You overheard that?”
“You didn’t mean me to?” She frowned. “That’s out of character for you.”
He clenched his fists. He had spent years hiding his thoughts. How could he have lost control so easily?
Francine spoke out loud, somehow echoing his thoughts although he was sure,surehe had not let them slip this time.
“You wouldn’t have made it very long under Harper’s thumb if you couldn’t keep your thoughts to yourself.” She narrowed her eyes. “Are you feeling all right?”
“Are you?”
“Of course not.” She gave a blinding smile that dropped as quickly as it appeared. And something shivered between them, silver-bright but delicate as morning vapor as the sun hits the sea. Her eyes widened. “Oh—”
No.
Not now.
The words rushed unbidden to his mind. Francine’s head jerked back. Her eyes searched his. He stared back at the woman and the lioness watching from behind her eyes, and she let out a ragged breath.
“It’s meant to happen instantly. It hasn’t for us, and maybe that’s a good thing. If the bond is already affecting our mental connection, who knows what else it might do?” It was as though she were reciting from a list she’d already prepared. “I’m not—ready for that.” She gave a weak laugh that sounded nothing like her. “We both have enough on our plates without…”
“I’m glad you agree,” he interjected smoothly, and she nodded, and he hid a sigh of relief, and that was that.
