A sob broke in my throat and I swallowed it back, whirling to turn my back on the dragon, on Donavyn, oneverything.As I stumbled towards the compassionate shadow of Akhane, grasping at the pieces of myself that I’d thought I’d armored, I thought I’d healed, I was forced to fight.
I fuckingbattled.
I would not fall back into that void of fear. I wouldnotcry. Not now. Those fuckers had already taken one life from me. I wouldnotlet them steal this new, better life that I’d fought to be worthy for. Iwouldn’t.
A hand brushed my back and I flinched, jerking away and turning to find Donavyn, no longer reaching for me, but staring at me with brokenhearted grief. When he opened his mouth to speak, I hurried to fill the silence because I couldn’t bear to hear it.
“Help the dragon,” I said through numb lips, backing up to stand next to Akhane, placing her between me and the launch hollow so I could stop feeling the eyes of everyone in that crowd filing back to the stable. “Help them. Leave me alone. I’m fine.”
“Bren—”
“Please, Donavyn. Go help him. He’s…” I trailed off and swallowed again. “Wait, you said that he killed his own rider?”
Donavyn nodded slowly, his eyes dark and suddenly glinting with a strange light I didn’t understand. “It’s an ancient, but binding part of the bond,” he said hoarsely. “If a dragon discovers that his rider has committed an offense deemedunforgiveable, he has the right to enact punishment. But he does so knowing that it might kill him, too.”
I gaped. “He’s dead?”Dark, tousled hair. A wicked smile. A scar on his chin where the hair didn’t grow—
Donavyn looked at Kgosi, grief etched on every line of his handsome face, then he nodded. “Yes,” he breathed. “He’s gone, Bren. He’s dead.”
“G-good,” I murmured, wondering why that truth felt odd in my hands, like a strangely heavy parcel I hadn’t unwrapped, but wasn’t sure I wanted.
Donavyn took a step closer, but I shook my head. “Go. Help the dragon. Help Kgosi.”
“Bren—”
“He’s dead, Donavyn. That’s all that matters. He’s dead.”
But as my mate stared sadly, then turned away to help his dragon, my mind wouldn’t stop turning back, retrieving the past and presenting it to me like plates at a feast.
Calloused hands.
A smile with an edge.
Eyes that gleamed.
A rough touch and a cackling laugh that still haunted my dreams some nights…
I shuddered.He’s dead,I tried to remind myself. Akhane turned to nudge my arm with her snout, but I patted it thoughtlessly, my mind elsewhere.
Dead. He wasdead. Gone.
I should be relieved.
I should begrateful.
But all I felt was creeping, lonely dread.
11. Thwarted
~ DONAVYN ~
Tato, the healer Furyknight, stepped back, looking solemn, stroking his dragon, Nila’s, leg and watching her.
‘He will live if he chooses to,’Kgosi intoned in my head.
I nodded, relieved. But unable to relax.
An hour earlier, Kgosi had sent Akhane away, because her distress affected the sick male. And of course, Bren went with her.
