“You were betrayed.”
It made sense. Yuto was aloof most of the time, even with Eryx, Orion, and Callista. He clearly cared for them, but I’d never seen him lower his guard around them. He never shared his thoughts, his feelings. He was their Lord of Dragons and nothing more.
I wished he could see that he did not have to live like this. History did not have to repeat itself. Someone might have betrayed him once, but that did not mean others would as well.
“This castle, this home, it was a safe haven for me for so many years. And not just me...but others, too. To see it destroyed.” His voice broke, and he ran his fingers through his cobalt hair. “Do you know what it feels like for everything you know to be ripped right out of your hands?”
I pressed my lips together, nodded. “I know better than you’d think. Before I came here, I had a life I loved. It was simple and easy and nice. There were no grand castles or gilded crowns, but there was light. That trinket shop was mine, and I loved it. I had a room just behind it with a hearth and piles of books. I had to leave it all behind when my father ran from the prince. I’ll never get it back now. That life is gone.”
Yuto gave me a sad smile. “I am so sorry, Aradia. I knew your father betrayed you, but I never thought about what that might have meant for your life.”
“It’s okay.” I hugged myself, shivering now that memories of my father flooded my mind. I didn’t want to think about him anymore, not now, not with Yuto’s terrible past staring him right in the face. “But enough about me. Tell me more about what happened here.”
“When we first arrived in Inishfall, I spent days digging through the rubble. I was convinced that if I dug long enough, I’d find a path back to the life I once had.” He shook his head, jaw clenching. “I wasn’t in my right mind. My hands were bloodied. My back was breaking. I didn’t even eat for days.”
I gazed up at him, trying to imagine the male before me down on his knees, broken and bloodied. It seemed impossible to me now.
“If it hadn’t been for Callista, I would have likely died in the rubble, along with my past,” he said, voice hoarse. “But she pulled me out of the darkness. She was the only one who could.”
My heart thumped at his words. “Do…do you love her?”
It made sense. She was beautiful and fierce and kind. They’d shared their lives for so long. They’d been through so much together, far more than I could ever comprehend.
With a frown, Yuto tore his gaze away from the ruined castle to look at me. “Do I love her? Of course I do.”
I nodded, swallowing hard.
“But am I in love with her?” With a slight smile, he shook his head. “There is still so much you don’t understand about our ways, Aradia.”
“Then, help me to understand,” I said.
“Callista is part of my Thunder, Aradia,” he said. “Those within a Thunder never mate. Not unless a wife or a husband is married into it. It isn’t right. We are like a human family. She is my sister, even if not by blood. We are one.”
My heartbeat thrummed. Yuto had never spoken so candidly about his life and his world before now. “A Thunder?”
He nodded. “That is what you call a group of dragonlords and ladies.”
“You know…you’ve never really explained what dragonlords are…”
“I thought your library books told you all about us,” he said with a slight smile.
“They said you can control dragons, that you ride them,” I said. “That they will answer to you over anyone else.”
“You are partly right, Aradia, but that is not the full story of our kind. We wield far more power than that.”
His words should have scared me, but they didn’t. All I felt was a bone-deep desire to know everything he wanted to hide. I didn’t want to run. I didn’t want to fight. I just wanted to know him. All of him.
“Tell me,” I whispered.
He rubbed his chin and stared up at the crumbling tower that had once been his home. “The magic surrounding this place has muted my powers. Mine and my Thunder’s. I assume it’s had the same effect on Panos, as well as any of the other prisoners held captive here.”
Otherprisoners. It was something I hadn’t even dared to think. Inishfall, as far as I could tell, stretched far and wide on every side of us. It only made sense that there were others. Hopefully, they’d remain hidden away wherever they were.
“You seem pretty powerful to me,” I said. “Especially your ability to heal.”
“I cannot take flight,” he stated so matter-of-factly that I almost didn’t register what he’d said.
“Right, but...” I shook my head. “Wait a minute. Did you say that you can’t take flight? You can...fly?”
