“The way this hatchling died feels the same. I don’t mean to question you, my king, but is there any way she could’ve returned? Could she be doing this from the afterlife?”
My mind shifted to Zaicha, a daughter of the gods. Could she have answers?
King Elias’s shoulders heaved with his heavy sigh. “I don’t know. Alastor might, though.”
Without hesitation, Javier rose with Sama.
“Javier and I will bring him here,”Sama said.
“He is in the northernmost parts of Niev alongside Ximena,” King Elias said. “Together, they are searching for the orb.”
“We’ll bring him back,” Javier said, turning to Sama to climb his scales.
“I don’t want Ximena searching alone,” the king said. “Before you get him, ask Hayden to choose a warrior to search with her so he can bend space and take them there.”
Sama bared his teeth, probably not liking the way our king gave him orders. When King Elias did the same, Nalari stood behind him, snarling at Sama as he took to the sky.
Brenton squeezed my hand that he still held. I looked back at him, my stomach twisting the way it always did when he smiled at me. When he inched closer, I kept my spine straight. My shoulders squared. My body was trained to stand firm in battle. Apparently, it was trained to resist comfort too.
If he noticed the distance I kept between us, he didn’t let on.
“Do you think all dragons are as dramatic as those two?” Gold twinkled around the hazel in his eyes, beseeching me to tease him back.
With a small smile on my lips, I turned to look at Hoshiko. “Hoshiko isn’t dramatic.”
Brenton scoffed. “Have you already forgotten the way he snarled at you?”
“He was protecting you.” From me.
I squeezed his hand once before I removed it from his hold and turned to Kassidy.
“Who in your realm possesses magic?” I asked.
The way she arched her brow made me believe she’d leave another question unanswered.
“Only the dragons,” she said. “We have a dragon-bound, but she doesn’t truly possess magic. She can use her binding with dragons to heal others.”
A dragon-bound. I’d never heard of such a thing. Was she fae? Human? Another being I hadn’t heard of?
“I can’t imagine the dragons would harm their own in this manner,” I said. “But magic did kill this hatchling.”
“Was it a harsh death?” one of the females asked. She nibbled on the side of her finger before she dropped it to her lap. “My name is Jaise. I’m one of Kassidy’s younger sisters.”
Kassidy winked at her sister.
I watched the way Kassidy kept the egg safely tucked in her arms, the way her siblings looked sadly at the dead hatchling. Not wanting to hurt them, I wasn’t certain what to say.
“Tell them the truth,”Hoshiko said in my mind.
I startled at his voice, but wondered how many more times he’d speak to me. He’d already done it a handful of times and each time made me feel special. Chosen, not for my magic but for me.
“The hatchling suffered greatly.” I ran a gentle finger over its body, wishing my magic could bring life instead of taking it. “May I see your egg?” I asked Kassidy.
She hesitated.
“You have my word, I won’t harm it.”
With care, she handed it to me. The air around it crackled with life, its thin veins pulsing like a heartbeat. A sheen glimmered as I moved it, a gold hue hugging it as if the egg were dusted in gold. Magic, both dormant but not, thrummed through it.
