“But…” I reach out to him, my fingertips hovering above his scaled arm. “You said that our Blacksmith magic was drawing the darkness.”
I’m suddenly overly conscious of where I’m standing and the fact that I’m wearing my medallions and accessing my power.
“Blacksmith magic is drawn to itself,” he says, his voice hollow. “You are not dead, and yet the darkness is drawn to you because of its origins.”
A sudden chill passes down my spine.
That scent in the air that I inhaled when we first headed east… A whisper in the breeze like dark voices calling…
My fear grows as I whisper, “Itwantsus dead.”
Chapter 7
Gallium’s hand on my shoulder anchors me, and I let out my held breath, but I have to speak my fears. “Thaden, we could draw the blight to your village.”
Thaden’s jaw clenches. His focus is on my hand, where my fingertips hover above his arm.
I’ve never touched him.
Oh, he’s touched me. A hand on my shoulder, a brush of his non-scaled arm against mine. But I’ve never reached out to him before. And never when I was accessing my power.
Thepullis strong.
Blacksmith magic attracts itself.
“We shouldn’t go to your village,” I say, plowing on. “I shouldn’t go there. Gallium shouldn’t go there. And now that you’re changed, neither should you. We all carry Blacksmith magic that could endanger your people.”
His jaw clenches again. “It’s a risk I have to take.”
“Why, Thaden?” I ask quietly, needing an answer even as my hand continues to hover above his scaled arm, and he doesn’t try to move away. “Because you promised Asha? Surely, there are alternative places you could take us?”
Now, he steps back from me, his focus rising once more to my face, but his jaw is no less tight. “There are other reasons. You will see.”
He turns away from me, as if it’s settled.
“But, the risk?—”
“You will see!” he snaps back at me, a deep growl in his voice.
For an instant, the cloak he wears over his emotions disappears. It’s fleeting. But I see it, the face he hides.
The face he has masked with bronzed hair, scales that glitter, and a presence that radiates with the strength of a dragon.
There’s a look in his eyes.
It’s the same wild, intensely angry look Malak Ironmeld gave me when he strapped me to his anvil?—
I refuse to revisit those memories, that trauma. I shut it away as I have so many times before, but I can’t stop my shudder.
Thaden doesn’t see me shiver. He has already turned away and is now surging ahead along the burned-out path, determination in his every quick step.
For the first time, I wonder…
If getting back to Asha isn’t the only reason he’s so anxious to reach his village, then what else is he hiding?
Gallium’s hand tightens on my shoulder, and when I look at him, he gives me a determined look.
No matter what lies ahead of us, we will protect each other.
