He nearly doesn’t fit between the cabin and the trees, pulling up sharply at the last moment to drop to the ground and quickly fold away his wings.
He gives ahumph, awkwardly squeezing himself closer to us.
All the while, my father’s statue remains untouched.
Asha and I end up crouched beside Milena on the ground.
Asha’s silver hair is messy around her face, from the flight and Graviter’s landing, but she doesn’t seem to care, her perceptive gaze racing across the clearing.
Within seconds, she seems to take in the cabin, the far buildings, the surrounding trees, the snow, and finally, my father’s statue.
Her questioning eyes meet mine. Pale-green eyes like faded leaves. They’re the only part of her that reminds me of her father, Kalith Silverspun.
Her voice is a whisper. “Erik, what is this place?”
The answer sticks on my tongue.
I was ready to tell her everything back on the snowy cliff. I want her to know what happened, how we first met. Not the price I paid for her life, but the reason why I believed, even then, that her life was worth risking everything for.
“Asha—”
Before I can continue, Milena gasps. Her dark-blue eyes fly open and she struggles within the fur. “Graviter is here! He’s coming!”
Her mind must be stuck in the moment when Graviter first stormed toward us, before she was knocked out.
Asha’s hand rests down on Milena’s chest. “Be still. Graviter Rex has agreed to peace. He will not hurt us now.”
It doesn’t escape me how stern Asha’s voice sounds. How harsh she has sounded each time she’s addressed Milena.
When Asha was a child, Milena deliberately gave her the wrong hammer so it would appear that Asha was weak and powerless. For years, Asha was ridiculed and mistreated by her people because of it.
It was that ridicule that led to her being dragged out into the snow in a senseless act perpetrated by her peers.
Their actions led to the deaths of my family.
Milena’s choice led to the deaths of my family.
“We will take you inside this place and make you warm,” Asha says. “You will not die alone, Milena, but know this: We are not your allies. The harm you caused me and those I care about can never be forgiven.”
Beside us, Torva Viridia has stiffened, her emerald eyes narrowing at Asha’s harsh words. Then she softens, a slump to her shoulders, because there’s no denying the pain in Asha’s voice.
Milena’s brow has smoothed out and now she’s focused entirely on Asha. I expect the older woman’s response to be jumbled and difficult to comprehend—just as her replies were muddled before Graviter arrived on the snowy cliff.
I’m surprised when she replies softly, but clearly. “It was my intention to keep you safe from my brother.”
“You failed,” Asha says. “And then you left.” Her chest rises and falls rapidly. “You left me to the brutes and the beasts. You exposed me to my mother’s switch and the back of my father’s hand and my people’s brutality. You left me unable to protect my siblings when they needed me the most. Unable to protect thehumans. Unable to stand up when someone should have stood up?—”
Her voice chokes. Tears glisten in her eyes, but the pure anger in her voice tells me they’re tears of rage.
She takes a deep, shuddering breath, and the clearing around us is suddenly so quiet that the dragons may as well have stopped breathing. Both of them hang their heads low to the ground, as if Asha’s words weigh them down.
“You had the power to stop all of that from happening, but you chose the easy path,” Asha says. “You chose to protect yourself.”
Milena is very still where she lies. And then, she whispers, “I did. I protected myself.”
Chapter 50
Milena’s admission causes Torva’s head to lift, the dragon’s eyes widening. It’s clear it wasn’t the response the emerald dragon expected from her rider.
