If Alar had a problem with my display of affection for Morek, he was good at hiding it, and I appreciated the effort. Men were possessive creatures, and they were instinctively driven to protect what they considered theirs. Come to think of it, I was possessive too, and I considered Alar mine. Would I have minded if he hugged Shovia and she kissed him on his cheek?
No, I would not.
She was a dear friend, and he cared about her. He might be even slightly attracted to her because she oozed sex appeal and he was a young, healthy male, but I knew he would never be disloyal to me, not even in thought or imagination. It just wasn't the type of man he was.
We continued down the hall to Alar and Codric's room, and this time, Alar didn't bother knocking and just opened the door.
I guess he figured Shovia and Codric wouldn't be doing anything intimate while waiting for news about me.
"Kailin!" Shovia launched herself off Codric's bed and crossed the room in two strides, wrapping me in a hug that threatened to crack my ribs. "Oh, thank Elu, you're okay."
She pulled back, and I was shocked to see tears glistening in her eyes. Shovia was the least emotional person I knew. She never cried.
"Hey," I said softly, reaching up to wipe a tear that had escaped from the corner of her eye. "I'm fine."
"You can't do that to me," she said. "I can't handle the stress."
It was my fault that everyone had been so worried. I'd confessed my unwarranted fears to Shovia, and she must have told the others.
"You know the saying that it's never the things you worry about that get you? It's true. Nyxath was not nearly as terrifying as I expected. In fact, she was friendly, for a dragon queen, that is."
Codric had risen from his bed as well, and he gave me a quick hug. "Good to see you in one piece. We were debating whether to stage a rescue mission, but since we were all terrified of Nyxath, we just stayed here and waited."
"So, what did she want?" Shovia asked.
Nyxath hadn't explicitly told me to keep our conversation secret, but some instinct warned me to be careful. Shovia and Alar knew about my dream, but what about Codric? I didn't remember telling Shovia to keep it a secret from him, so it was likely that she'd already told him.
I sat on the bed with Alar next to me, holding my hand. "Nyxath knew about my dream about projecting the call to potential riders on other worlds because Onyx had read my thoughts during the ride over here and told her. She didn't seem to mind and even told me to drink the tea to get deeper into the dream and see where it leads me."
"What else did she say?" Codric asked.
"She said I have her protection, but she didn't specify from whom. She just said that power attracts those who fear it or want to control it."
"That's ominous and unhelpful," Shovia said.
"That's what I thought," I admitted. "But at least she's not the threat, and she's on our side. That's something."
"Unless she was lying," Codric pointed out. "Dragons are not bound by the Precepts of Truth."
"I don't think she was." I thought back to those ancient, knowing eyes.
Nyxath had also said that I came from one of the most ancient shamanic lines and that she could smell Elu's blood in my veins. The most surprising thing was that I wasn't unique in that regard. Supposedly, many Elucians were the descendants of those ancient lines and didn't know that they were.
"What else did she say?" Alar asked.
He must have guessed that I wasn't telling them everything. I would tell him later what Nyxath had said about my blood, but I could share more details about my conversation with the queen with my friends without betraying Saphir's confidence.
"She hinted that I'm in danger not only from the Sitorians and the Shedun but also from dissidents. She told me not to fear my abilities and to remember that I'm not alone."
"You're not," Shovia said. "You have us."
"We were chosen together for a reason," Codric added.
"Even if that reason is just to keep me sane while reality gets increasingly strange," I attempted a joke.
"Hey, we're good at that," Shovia said. "Sanity maintenance is totally our thing."
"Since when?" Codric asked.
