Either way, it was what everyone wanted.
Love.
And me? Well, I wanted it too. Because I loved Roland, and if he did marry a foreign princess, that dream would be over.
But there he was, telling them that he wanted the same thing: love.
It gave me hope, because I loved him. He had always seemed to love me. Maybe... but I couldn’t let myself get distracted by all that there and then. I was in the middle of a bunch of enemies, and I needed to get Roland and get away.
“Get on me,” I whispered to him. Dragons can’t really whisper, though. We’re very large, and even the smallest attempt at speech tends to turn out a gust of wind.
He looked up at me, then at my neck, and winced. “I might... I’m pretty sick.”
I rolled my eyes, because there honestly wasn’t anything I cared less about in that moment. Our lives were in danger, and he was worried about messiness. “If you have to be sick, be sick. Just don’t lose hold of me.”
He met my eye, and there was the Roland I loved entirely. That strength I’d always envied and effortless power that had told me that yes, he was precisely the king that Vidar had named him even at age nine.
“Never,” he agreed. “Never again. Not for anything.”
“Your Majesty,” the slimy lord said again, stepping forward. “This should be discussed. It’s quite unreasonable to?—”
“Discussion is over,” Roland informed him, hefting himself up to slide onto the back of my neck. He had to try twice, but he did manage it. The grip around my neck even felt firm, secure. “Llangard wants no part of you kidnapping lot. The last people who kidnapped me also attacked Llangard, and were put down. Feel free to join their numbers.”
“But we?—”
I loosed a gout of flame in the man’s direction, and when he stopped and stepped back, glaring at me, I could barely hold back a shout. “You kidnapped our king! I cannot imagine why you think we would ever forgive that. In fact, you should expect that if you ever attempt to return, Llangard’s dragons will greet you with nothing but the flames you deserve.”
And with that, I leapt, twisting into the winds as Roland clung to my neck, and took wing back in the direction of home, weaving back in forth in the air, just in case the man made good on his threats to shoot arrows at me.
21
ROLAND
Had I felt any better, I’d have been horrified at the whole scene.
I’d vomited at Aderyn’s feet. Sick caked at the corner of my mouth and splashed across his beautiful scales.
When I finally managed to crawl on his back, I laid flat with my belly to his spine and wrapped arms and legs both around his neck and clung on as tight as I could.
The men on the ship’s deck shouted against the gale from Aderyn’s wings as he spread them wide. His legs bunched, and he sprang up, sending the ship splashing.
We were in the air, and I swear, my stomach was about to fall out of my ass as he rose swiftly.
Dizziness gripped me, and I could hardly make sense of the bolt that whizzed past my leg. They were shooting at him!
I wanted to scream at the Destovians to stop, that if they scratched so much a single scale on Aderyn, I’d wipe their whole empire off the map.
Problem was, I was afraid if I opened my mouth, I’d end up heaving.
Instead, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the wind on my cheek and the warmth of Aderyn’s neck beneath me.
He’d come for me.
Not Tristram or Bet, who always had and always would, but Aderyn himself. Wherever he’d fled after he found out how I’d betrayed him, he’d rushed to my side when I needed him.
Just that fact alone meant I wasn’t half so lost and pathetic as I’d feared. If Aderyn would still come for me, I had to earn his faith.
I didn’t know how long we flew. Though I couldn’t rest, I kept my eyes shut. Each flap of his wings was enough of a jostle that my stomach clenched.
