“What happened, Thaden? How did he die?”
Thaden is quiet for so long, focused on his daughter for such an extended moment, that I suspect the answer even before he speaks it.
“She happened,” he finally says in a bare whisper. “I took her out into the sunlight for the first time. We were walking down the path toward the village. At that time, only a handful of people knew that I had a child, but even fewer knew what I’d done to keep her alive. Milena certainly didn’t know. Neither did the dragons.
“But then Lysander arrived. I wasn’t expecting him. He must have seen her from the sky because he was already in a rage when he landed and blocked the path. The heat from his mouth was burning us. He was shouting at me, but his fire was hurting her. She was terrified, screaming, and then?—”
“Then?”
He takes a deep breath before the corners of his mouth turn down. “Then she was covered in dragon blood.” His expression is haunted, his eyes shadowed. “Fuck me, she was barely as big as his paw, but she went straight for his throat and?—”
He glances back at the woman in the corner, who has turned pale.
“I was there,” the woman whispers. “Precious thing, but that dragon was dead within seconds.”
“Trust me, Asha,” Thaden says, turning back to me. “You don’t want me to describe it.”
I lift my hand. I really don’t need to know.
“And then?” I ask, knowing that what happened next matters, even though I can already see it playing out. I can already guess why Thaden asked me how far I would go to protect the ones I love.
“A dragon was dead,” he says, his expression now blank. “I knew they’d come for me. So I made another decision.”
“You took his soul.” But my forehead crinkles. “But you aren’t left-handed. How did you do that?”
He is grim. “My father never took souls with his Blacksmith magic. He used his Blacksmith magic to create the devices and transplant them into living flesh. But the taking of the soul was dark magic.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Dark magic drains life. It exists in every murder. All I had to do was take another medallion, fashion it into the shape of a dragon, and let go of the good in my heart. I accepted the dark. Then Lysander’s soul was mine.”
I shake my head, speaking with certainty when I say, “It wasn’t that easy.”
I remember again the pain Erik described to me of his transformation, of having his heart opened, and how he would have embraced death because it was better than the agony he was experiencing.
“You’re right.” Thaden’s gaze is steely as he looks me in the eye. “It wasn’t that easy. But it made me strong enough to protect my daughter. And that’s all that fucking matters.”
I lean back on my heels. I don’t need him to tell me the rest. He went to Milena. They fought. Then he came to me.
I have only a few questions left now. “How did you create the devices that you used to entrap Milena on the clifftop—the one for the snow bear and the other for the tree?”
“The tree was easy,” he says with a suddenly dark grin. “I killed a giant spider. Actually, the bear was easy, too, since I have a dragon’s strength. For both, I used a medallion and the death force of the dying creature.”
“But Blacksmiths only have three medallions.”
I’ve already counted to four.
“I had seven,” he says. “NowI have three.”
I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not as though he grew up within the same system of rules that I did. It sounds as if he was making weapons well before the usual age of sixteen.
I fold my hands in my lap. “You said you needed my help.”
“Sheneeds your help.” His gaze hasn’t wavered. Where before his eyes were full of fear, now they’re full of hope. “I can’t do what you can do. I can’t help her mind or make her whole. Even before you healed the Vandawolf, I believed that you alone could heal her, but once I watched you pull that device from his heart, I was certain. Asha, she needs you.”
I try to breathe through my emotions: fear, anxiety, uncertainty. So many times since I stepped into this cave, I’ve caught my breath and tried to calm my heart.
“My hammer isn’t like any other,” I say. “When I helped Erik become whole, I had a medallion. He believes I can do anything with my hammer, but… I can’t exactly clobber her with it.”
