Roland’s doublet.
Once more, I ran, seeing nothing but blood and death in every dark corner and behind every door. It was a miracle I reached my destination at all, not realizing I had a destination until I had arrived there: Tristram’s office, once again.
Tristram had defeated the monsters once, though, so surely he could beat them again.
He and Bet were sitting in the chairs across from his desk, and Tris started to stand when he saw me come in. I didn’t stop, though, almost bowling him over as I rushed headlong into him. “There’s a monster,” I told him. “A monster ate Roland.”
Tris frowned, holding me tight, taking my hands in his. “A monster?”
I leaned in, whispering. “One of them. A... a dragon monster.” Behind me, Bet sighed. I whipped my head around to look at him, but he didn’t seem to understand. “Like in the pass,” I insisted. “They’re back. They’re?—”
“Aderyn,” Tris whispered, squeezing my hands firmly. “I promise you, monsters are not invading. Where did you see the dragon?”
“Not a dragon,” I stressed. “One of them. In my hoard. In Roland’s room.” I buried my face in his shoulder and sobbed. “It’s killed Roland.”
Footsteps echoed through the office, and when I looked up again, Bet was standing in the office door. “I’ll go check on him.”
And that was it.
Didn’t they understand?
11
ROLAND
Iheard him.
Through the wall that hid Aderyn’s hoard from my private quarters, I heard him moving around. Could scent him on the air.
I wanted him.
He was just beyond the door.
For the first time in my life, I understood what it really meant to have a hoard, to desire something so ardently that it overtook all reason. No, Aderyn wasn’t mine. He wasn’t a thing I could collect.
But he was all I wanted in this world. I longed to surround myself with him, see his smile, breathe the same air as he did. I’d find a soft spot for us both, and nuzzle into his lap until he scratched his graceful fingers along the back of my neck and?—
Before I knew what I’d done, I had thrown open the door between us, hoping to find him.
Aderyn had looked at me and screamed. I’d opened my mouth to explain, but all that came out was a rattling snarl.
He barreled past me, and that was when it hit me?—
He didn’t see me at all. Before him, I was a beast, and he was afraid. Sitting alone in my quarters, feeling sorry for myself, I’d lost my mind to the tug of the moons and the blood, and was too far from reason to stay away when I knew he was so close.
The horror that ripped through me then sent me running on all fours, taking off for the nearest exit, dashing away from where Aderyn had fled.
I skirted down the spiral stairs, banging into the stone walls of the Spires, oblivious to what pain it should have caused. No doubt my malformed, golden scales blunted the worst of it.
When I got to the aviary, every bird took off at the sight of me. Those that could fly, did, and those that couldn’t, bounded away, leaping over artfully arranged brush and low walls to get away from me.
I gasped in the cold, sharp air and threw myself toward the far wall.
Away from the birds.
They feared me too.
The world was tinged red at the edges, the glass wall behind me vibrating.
