“Free.” Iasar’s head snapped forward, stopping only when his snout was a breath away from my face. Smoke continued coiling from his nostrils, and I bit back my overwhelming urge to sneeze. “Lissssten and lissssten well, tiny being. You. Freed. Me.”
“This is a good thing. Right?” Please, let it be so.
“It issss,” he bellowed, the words shoving the leather front of my tunic against my quivering skin. “Lissssten well, tiny being.”
I swallowed, spittle clawing its way down my throat, and jerked out a nod. Speaking felt like too much in this gorgeous beast’s presence.
“A blade will be forged in light, torn away by thorn’ssss blight,” he whispered, lifting his snout to speak by my ear as if no one but me should hear his words. “And veiled beneath thegaze of eternal right.” Lifting his head, his dark gaze met mine. “Do you lissssten? Do you remember, tiny being?”
“A blade will be forged in light, torn from thorn’s blight,” I repeated softly. “And veiled beneath the gaze of eternal right.”
“Good. There issss more.” He cocked his head, revealing spikes jutting up around his eyes. Modern dragons didn’t have anything like that. How old was this beast, and how long had he been trapped inside the door? “Where no foot treadssss and no eye sssshall ssssee, guarded by ssssilence, assss if held within treessss.”
“Trees?”
He nodded sagely. “Treessss.”
I repeated what he’d said, though I didn’t know what this referred to or why he felt it was so vital I remember. I’d imprint it in my mind because I sensed this might one day mean everything to me.
He shot a look over his shoulder before snapping his head back to stare at me. When a fae woman rounded the side of the castle and stopped, gaping our way, his head jerked in that direction. With a shake of his neck, he blasted blue fire toward her. She shrieked and flitted, disappearing from view.
The dragon faced me once more. “Ssssplit between realmssss where the horizon meetssss the world beyond, half 'neath starssss where dreamssss unsssspoken are drawn.”
I repeated the phrases after the beast, and he nodded.
“It waits where a blood red ssssun does ssssink,” he said. “In dawn’ssss embrace—it'ssss there you must sssseek.”
I whispered the words as if they were a spell, having no idea what they meant. “Anything else?”
The dragon’s gaze flicked back to the door where the other beast still writhed. “Free my mate, Amronth.”
“Amronth is your mate?”
He nodded. “He’ll gift you with resssst of the riddle.”
Then Iasar had given me half.
“I’ll do it right away,” I said.
Tempest,Vexxion growled.What’s going on?
Nothing. Nothing!Fates, don’t come here now.
Iasar scrambled around me and up onto the bridge railing. It cracked beneath his vast weight, fissures snaking across the stone.
Then he leaped and soared out over the valley.
I rushed over to stand at the rail. The world . . . parted. There was no other way to describe it. A slice appeared in the sky and the dragon angled his body to fly into it. The gap closed, and he was gone.
It was so beautiful and perfect that all I could do was stare after him with tears in my eyes.
Vexxion flitted. I felt him arrive on the bridge behind me.
I quickly swiped my tears away.
His arms wrapped forward, pinning me against the rail. “You said you were going to our suite. Yet, here you are, standing on the middle of the bridge in wide open view like bait.” A snarl edged into his voice, though it was never directed at me. It only showed how concerned he was about me.
I peered up at him.
