But if anyone in this court thought that I would abandon Koryn, they were delusional. And just as misguided as always.
Which brought me back to the lavender dragon in the snow. Now with no shortage of space, she’d spread her wings wide and was preening as she itched a stretch of membranes with the snout of her nose. The comparison to a dog was eerie.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You should not be here.”
She ignored me.
She took her sweet, plentiful dragon time, scratching at her wing with her snout and jaw. She was truly her witch’s familiar. I made a sound in my throat usually reserved for Koryn.
Isanara hissed at me. I growled back.
Her citrine eyes narrowed. She did not need to blink—at least, not as often as humans did. The result was an eerie intensity as she stared me down in an impossible contest I could not possibly win. When I blinked, she tossed her head and bared her teeth in the closest thing I could imagine to a dragon smiling.
I growled again.
Isanara swiveled her head from side to side in that strange, serpentine motion she favored when agitated. Then she thrust her jaw upward. I did not need to look over my shoulder. I could trace the line from the point of her snout up to the window of the bedroom I’d occupied in what felt like a different life. And now, in this one.
“You do not think that I should be here, either?” I asked. She thought I should be with Koryn. Except, “She is with the Dark God. Training.”
I ground my teeth together to keep the feelings that knowledge conjured from playing across my face. Isanara had adirect line to Koryn. I was more than jealous of their connection and closeness. I longed for the restoration of my own bond with Koryn. The Lifebind was still there, of course. But goddess-given though it was, it paled in comparison to the affection that Koryn had once given to me freely, completely of her own volition.
I’d been compelling people for decades. I’d never needed to compel someone into my bed; the thought was abhorrent. But knowing that I could manipulate made Koryn’s choice even more precious. And her withdrawal more painful.
I missed her so deeply I’d almost given in to the offer she made. To have a piece of her, even just the physical, was like a cloak in the frigid darkness of Velora. But it was not just her body that I loved.
Isanara hissed again. This time, her citrine eyes focused on the distant window. She was not fond of the Dark God either.
“A sentiment we share,” I assured her.
She flared her wings but extended her neck again. The spikes along her spine stood up straight, agitated. I was not doing what she wanted. I was not doing what I wanted, either. Welcome to my damned life.
“She does not want me,” I said.
The look she gave me was half-irritated teenager and half-annoyed creature of ancient legend. Get over yourself, the first half said. I cannot comprehend your trifling mortal problems, said the other.
Her wings snapped in, legs tensed, and then she launched herself into the sky. She flew in a wide arc around Balar Shan’s central tower, past the window where Koryn and the Dark God were… doing whatever they did.
He wanted her. There was no doubt in my mind about it.
I even understood it. Her beauty transcended the soft, physical curves of her body and the intelligence in her guarded eyes. It gilded her soul. Despite her death, she chose life againand again. She protected her sister’s descendants. She forged a connection with her familiar and an acolyte in the temples. She fell in love.
He was a being of darkness, and she was the light of Velora. Of course he wanted her. And he would have her. She’d promised him her afterlife. But in this life, she was mine. She would remember that fact eventually, I told myself. The immortal blood of the fae ran in my veins. For the first time, I was thankful for the longevity my heritage promised me. I would wait as long as Koryn needed. The Dark God would wait longer still.
“I will never leave her,” I promised Isanara, long disappeared around the red and green spiraled curve of the tower.
“You never used to talk to yourself.”
As if this day was not bad enough already.
I was not surprised to see her. Her ability to sneak up on people had been the first sign of her wind-gift. She’d been doing it as long as she could walk.
“I am talking to the dragon.”
“Quite the conversationalist, is it?” Alize asked. She cast her gaze upward, scanning the sky.
“She.” A low throb at the base of my skull heralded the arrival of a headache. Naturally. Pure-blooded fae did not suffer from headaches. I could have done without the reminder of my humanity at the moment.
Alize shrugged her slim shoulders. Even returned to the Balar Shan, she eschewed courtly dress in favor of fitted leather leggings and a velvet surcoat similar in cut to my own, save for the quilting. But the trappings of her royal status were still there.
