And Amarantha has no idea what’s coming.
14
Ash
“I’m not mad you know.”
Five words. Well, six depending on what kind of person you are.
They wake me inside the dream. And there’s something else. Something new curling at the edges of my vision. Deep purple. Magenta. The color of ash after fire eats everything worth burning.
It doesn’t touch me. Just watches. Tastes.
“This is the Trial of Survival. You’re living it.”Kestra’s words. Guess she wasn’t being poetic.
And just like that I’m staring into the golden eyes of a dragon.
Black slits that reflect galaxies back at me don’t just see me. They see the past, the present, and the future of all that I am. All that I could ever be.
“Vanessa,” I breathe her name like it’s fucking sacred. Because it is.
Vanessa has always had this unique quality to her. Almost mysterious. Hinged on innocence. I often wondered if she was always that sweet or if it was nothing more than a ruse.
But then one day Vanessa found out she was never human after all.
Long story short, she’s a dragon.
The purple energy pulses. Interested.
Of course. The Trial of Truth showed everyone what I did. The scope. The shot. Greyson crumpling into the sand. Now the Trial of Survival is making me face her.
“Ashlynne.” Vanessa winks, leaning forward on the bar top, her heart-shaped lips wrapped around a straw. She sips on her shake all while watching me watch her.
It’s unnerving in the best way.
I’ve seen her eat actual people. Level a town. Her energy crackles from her into the air all around us.
She terrifies me in the best ways. Because she could kill me without blinking. And she hasn’t. She’s loved me all these years.
And yet, I’ve kept a secret from her for a long, long time.
I killed the mate of a dragon.
And that, that’s what the projector missed. The trial. They all focused so heavily on the betrayal that they had no idea who, or what, I betrayed.
As Fae, they should have known better.
Yet my cousin’s secret is somehow still a secret. And I’m here in our hometown bar, drinking a milkshake. And she...
Isn’t mad.
I look away first. Let her laughter roll through me, unaffected. Her long brown hair tickles my arm as she leans in. “You are going to have to talk about it, Ash.”
I blink the tears away just as they fall. My eyes lock on one of the twins we grew up with across the bar. I know I need to talk. But right now?
Right this fucking moment?
“Now’s as good a time as any.” Vanessa nudges me.
