“What…” My brow furrows as I try to straighten my thoughts. “No, I don’t understand…”
She glances up at the man, and I’m suddenly aware that the air around us has fallen silent. The cries of dying creatures that I’ve been desperately blocking out have finally stopped.
The black, metal ribbons that were dancing across the air and delivering swift death finally retract. They slip back to the man’s right hand before he steps out of the golden light.
His features come into view, and there’s no mistaking who he is.
Thaden Kane Ironmeld.
His right arm is covered in bronze scales that spread across the right side of his chest and halfway up the side of his neck. They’re fully visible since he’s bare-chested.
The first time he came to me in a blast of energy that mimicked lightning, he swayed and stumbled within the crater he’d created in the earth, seeming disoriented, but this time, his footsteps are certain.
I recoil at the sight of him, flinching backward, seeking the location of my hammer. It’s only a short distance away from me behind my head, which is why I couldn’t see it before.
At my reaction, Thaden stops moving, maintaining his distance. His lips press together for a moment, but he sounds resigned when he murmurs to my sister, “Asha must have spoken with Milena.”
“Or the dragons,” Tamra replies quietly.
My brow furrows deeply, confusion swirling within me.
Before I can demand answers, my sister turns back to me. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, Asha. I don’t know what has happened to you since we were separated. But there are things you need to know, and we don’t have time to tell you. If you believe nothing else, please know that I love you, and I’m so sorry I hurt you.”
My eyes are wide as she lifts her hand from my leg. I can finally move without pain, lifting myself enough to see that the skin across my thigh is perfectly knitted. I’m certain there won’t even be a scar. But it isn’t my wound that concerns me.
Before I can speak, Thaden raises both of his hands. “You don’t trust me. That’s okay. But please, trust your sister.”
His expression is so fucking sincere.
Far more sincere than he has any right to be.
“You lied about who you are,” I snarl at him. “You lied about the dragon you killed.”
His lips press together, but he appears far less concerned about my accusation than I thought he might. I expected him to freeze or react aggressively or, at the very least, exhibit some guilt, but he doesn’t.
“This metal is mine,” he says, his expression clear and open as he closes his fingers around his medallion. Then he taps the hammer at his belt. “This hammer is mine. I’m Malak Ironmeld’s son. And yes, Graviter Rex’s son was killed. I wishI had time to explain everything to you, but I don’t. So all I’m going to do is ask you a question, Asha.”
I consider him warily. More so when Tamra rises to her feet and steps toward him, as if she trusts him completely.
I, too, lift myself to my feet, inching back toward my hammer. “What question?”
His bronze eyes search mine. “If someone you loved was about to die, is there any darkness you wouldn’t embrace to save them?”
I already know the answer.
On the night the Blacksmith race was annihilated, I offered my life in exchange for the lives of my little brother and sister. Every time I wore Malak’s metal, it was because I had vowed to keep my siblings alive. When that dark metal was fused to my hand, it was because I was trying to save Erik’s life. I used that same dark power to remove the device from his heart and give him back his life.
And then, when I refused to accept Erik’s death, I used my power to bring him back.
It isn’t a dark power.
But it seems the consequences might have been far more severe than I ever anticipated.
“There isn’t,” I say.
There is no darkness I wouldn’t embrace to save the ones I love.
“Then you know my heart,” he says. “And that’s what matters.”
