My brows arched. “Odd reaction forno one.”
He didn’t bite. Just leveled me with that impenetrable look of his. “I owe you nothing.”
“Well, fine,” I muttered. As if we hadn’t just spilled our deepest secrets minutes ago.
His mouth quirked, but the amusement didn’t reach his eyes. He was already shifting, turning his focus elsewhere. “We’ll be crossing Ryuu’s border in a few days,” he said, the dominating command in his voice returning in all its brooding glory. “We’ll need to talk about what lowland routes we need to keep to.”
The horizon split open then, trickling its first light across the forest. Not gentle, not golden, but burning through the branches in spears, forcing me to lift an arm to shield my eyes.
“Oh, right—” I started.
But Ronan interrupted.“And your hands.” The words were a demand and nothing less.
“What’s wrong with my—” The lie stuck in my throat when my eyes focused on them. Well, fuck. “Oh.” I forced out a laugh. “That.” I wiggled my fingers, as if it was only soot and soil clinging to me.
But Ronan wasn’t buying it. He glared at the blackened stain twisting up my wrists. “Yeah,” he fumed. “That.” His arms folded across his chest, every inch of him returning to the fire that lived below his smoke. “Talk.”
My shadow moved before I did, the Viper wishing to answer for me as my stomach knotted. I probably could have come up with a lie to feed him, had his eyes ever left mine. But they were as merciless as the morning light, and filled with an undiluted anger that choked me to death as he said, smoke thickening around my throat—
“Now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Verena
MUCH LIKE CALLUM’S COLD SHOULDER, Ronan had barely been able to look at me.
Not since the poisoning he saw crawling across my hands.
It was easy enough to lie. To claim that it was nothing but a normal, cruel trick of the curse. But the lies broke apart too brightly.
He knew what it meant and still, he had said nothing.
I had spent the last few days wondering why it stung so sharply. That he hadn't looked at me. That he’d barely spoken more than a handful of words. Even the smoke drifting from his fists seemed colder. I wished he had saidsomething. Anything.
That I was a disgrace. That I was dangerous. That he hated the sight of me.
Anything would have been easier than the silence. Because I had no idea what was going on in his head.
Was he thinking of a way to help? Or did he not waste another thought on it? Or worse... every time his smoke edged too close when he wasn’t looking, was it because it was trying for something he hadn’t yet?
Crossing through Ryuu’s border without triggering its ruler was far too easy. Then again, when you walked in beside its prince, who knew every unguarded rip in its wards, it made sense.
I didn’t let myself dwell on the why. Why he knew of them. Why he had never sealed them. Those thoughts all dissolved the moment we passed through.
One second, I was leaving tracks printed in dirt, beneath a sky so violently blue it put the sea to shame. The next, every sign of soil vanished, replaced by slate and stone.
A mountain rose, cut from obsidian and time, its peak clawing at a sullen sky whose sun was swallowed by thick clouds.
The air thinned the second it hit my lungs, strange and laced with the taste of old fire. Made for creatures bred to live above the world. Not simple Fae.
I kept Elva close behind me, though we had gotten to the point where I was more a burden for her than safety. But in the land of the dragons, one could never be too careful.
Elysian’s greedy inhale cracked through the dull before he shifted, feathers blooming, body breaking into his owl form. He soared high, darting straight for the peak as if the thin air was too intoxicating to resist.
Ronan didn’t stumble, but I saw it. That tic in his jaw, the tug deep in his gut as we crossed over that invisible line. This was his prison, as much as his home. The same way the curse was mine, the Viper my cage.
The reins went tight in my grip, refusing to budge no matter how hard I tugged. Zyran’s hooves dug into the ground, immovable as the stone.
