Justtrynot to ferry the other dragon down this pathway once you get there. I am trying to sleep for once, and it will put an end to your sneaking before it even begins if your parents hear her.
Nya stopped short, looking back at Thessilnn, the moon to Heles’ night sky, but she was already feigning sleep, and Heles was actually snoring.
So, it was real. The dreams of the amber eyes…real. And the rest of it?
She sucked in a sharp breath. She would see once she arrived if the impossibility the dragon had claimed was true.
About three miles away, a creek bed that ran through much of the forest opened into a waterfall. At the bottom, there was a large outcropping of stone; a clearing big enough for even dragons as large as Thessilnn and Heles to land.
Nya reached the waterfall just as the sun crested the horizon, bathing the world in a red-orange glow. The only problem was, skirting around the falls and down the hill would take at least another half hour. She didn’t see anyone below, but shehadpromised sunrise. What if she missed the window?
She never remembered her dreams when she awoke, not before this. Even so, these dreams felt more like an echo reaching her in the hazy moments before waking. The dragon, who called herself Varax, never showed herself in the visions. Perhaps she could not. Nya was fairly sure Varax was reaching her on some kind of mental pathway, similar to how her parentscommunicated with Thessilnn and Heles. She had never heard of a pathway working at such a long distance, though, to be fair, she had no idea where Varax actually was. Halfway through the last moon cycle, the dragon informed Nya they would meet. It was not only two nights ago that she told her of the other rider. No name was given, but Varax referred to the rider as a ‘he.’
It was ultimately stupid, but in her anxiety and flustered anticipation, Nya attempted to scale the side of the damp stone beside the falls. About halfway down, her foot slipped, and despite scrambling to grab a nearby notch in the stone, it was too slick, and she plummeted into the churning water.
She could swim just fine, but fear tore at her senses as the undertow beneath the falls caught her. She tried to kick away from the violent pull of the water, but it was in vain, her lungs already seizing from the panic and lack of oxygen. She was just about to reach down the mental pathway to her parents’ dragons when strong arms pulled her up, away from the undertow and out of the water.
Palms flat against the cool, coal-hued stone beside the falls, she gasped for air, coughing. Next to her, someone did the same before reaching towards her.
She reared back on instinct but froze when she saw his face.
Helookedyoung, perhaps a few years older than her, with a golden-tan complexion, high, pronounced cheekbones, and a strong nose. Dark hair that fell somewhere halfway down his back was plastered to his face, and he shoved it back with one of his hands. But what really gave her pause were his eyes.
His brown irises were intersected with a shocking shade of amber-gold. The fact that they were rimmed with silver was the first thing that made her reconsider his true age. He was clearly not mortal. There was something else there too, a sort of haunted cast that reminded her of the way her parents sometimes looked at each other; a pain that never quite leftand spoke of much endured. But where their pain was always softened by love, this man’s was…cold. Empty.
Her gaze wandered behind him, searching, and the man said, “Varax is down creek…frolicking, I believe.”
I do not frolic. I am cooling off my scales.
The man’s mouth twitched, just barely.Sure.
Nya’s lips’ parted in disbelief. She could hear the dragonandthe man in the same way she could hear Heles and Thessilnn. The dragon, Varax, had not lied or bluffed about coming here, nor about the other rider, if this was indeed him. She should probably clarify that, but?—
“Are you alright?”
She took a slow, shuddering breath, trying to wrap her mind around what this meant. “I’m fine.”
“It’s just… The near drowning. It couldn’t have been pleasant.”
Her brow creased, and she studied him. Even just sitting next to her, waves of magic ebbed from him like a pulsing aura, energy shifting almost visibly in the air around him. Whoever he was, he had come from some powerful bloodline. Perhaps he was even a full godling, given the visible ether in his eyes and the noticeable breadth of his magic. Presumably, he had come here with Varax, which meant…
Ask him the question, Nya,the dragon urged.
The man’s eyes widened incrementally. “So, it’s true,” he said quietly.
Nya worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “You’re her rider?”
He gave a shallow nod. “And now it seems you are too.”
“You didn’t connect us on purpose, did you?” she asked, curling her hands into fists. Despite the warm morning, she was starting to shiver, water still dripping from her water-loggedshirt and pants. “It’s just…you’re not mortal. You could have devious reasons.”
His lips curved. His upper lip was thinner than his bottom, just barely caught by a faint scar that ran the length of most of his face. “Neither are you. Although, if you think gods can bridge minds, I’m going to venture out on a wild guess and say you don’t know much about Arcadia or the gods who live there.”
She looked away, feeling a little stupid. The dragon had been so insistent they finally meet after nearly a year of the dreams. Looking back on it now, Nya thought she might have always been aware of another presence lingering nearby, perhaps not even aware of its proximity. When Varax had finally revealed it was her rider, that was when Nya’s curiosity had peaked. She had beenexcitedto come here today, hardly thinking about the dangers a meeting such as this might pose.
But this man…this god, or whoever he was, was right. She knew almost nothing about Arcadia beyond a few passages in books and her parents’ fear. Given how powerful they were, that alone probably should have warned her off, but perhaps the need to know who she truly was pulled stronger.
She had hoped this meeting today would begin to make the truth clearer.
